


The Promised Eden: Moths Among Whisperings

by LL Bacall (By_LLBacall)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: 57th Expedition, Advanced Society, Alternate Universe, Betrayal, Dead Marco Bott, Dead Special Operations Squad | Squad Levi, Kenny Ackerman Being an Asshole, Marco Bott mentions, Metahumans, Multi, New Beginnings, Power Play, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Separation Anxiety Mikasa, Separations, Treachery, character-building, until we meet again, world-building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:47:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24086851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/By_LLBacall/pseuds/LL%20Bacall
Summary: AU. During the 57th Expedition outside Wall Rose, the Female Titan slowly decimated the numbers of the Survey Corps. Overwhelmed from their pursuit of identifying who was inside controlling the creature, help arrived in the form of armored infantrymen that came from the sky. Upon discovering that the human population still lived on and in advanced civilizations, there was only one question that remained: stay inside the safety of the Walls or live free in the country named Eden?Meanwhile in Eden, a game was just beginning.
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, I would like to take the time to thank anyone that reads my first story on AO3. 
> 
> I had been planning to write this story for the last six years when I got into the series. The inspiration did come from many Fan Fictions attempting something similar, so, I thought, why not? I'll give it a go!
> 
> Now, I know my first chapter isn't an SNK character, but I can assure you Chapter One is from the perspective of Canon Character, and I'm not telling which one it is. You will have to wait and see.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a day that was supposed to be historic for the right reason, end up for the wrong ones. Captain Nero North of the Rangers Unit witnesses the monsters thought to be only a legend. It was the beginning and end for a carefree young man.

It was an exciting and historic occasion in all of Eden, but more to those who live in Eldiaport, East Eden, where it was taking place. Here, in Eden's capital, Avalon, the once busy roads stood at a standstill for the laser blockades kept vehicles at bay, allowing pedestrians to cross the bustling blocks of endless megastructures—which might as well had been small towns themselves—and smaller buildings clustered beside them in search of the closest holo-screen to watch the broadcast.

In one of those many plazas on the ground level in Avalon, spectators waited with anticipation for the main event that was to take place not long from now. Looking around the field of manicured grass, rows of colorful flowers, apple trees, and even-stoned trails of Orchard Park, it was impossible to fit more people inside the bustling designated area as it already looked like a rainbow and lively sea of people in their splendid summer clothing. Food vendors, along with those that sought extra profit throughout Avalon, took advantage of the festivity by selling snacks or trinkets at their displays, or having a group of workers projecting their voices of the goods they had on hand as they weaved through the waiting spectators.

The holo-screen that was before the tall and dark 250-meter steel building of the CENTRAL NEWS STATION across the road that faced the park exhibited Eden's prominent news anchors, engaging in conversation on the history of cosmic takeoffs through the years. The odd couple was a young and attractive blond-haired and brown-eyed woman, the other a mature and svelte, graying dark-haired man with medium tan skin and dark eyes; they're Annette Neville and Lou Kowalczyk. As the two continued conversing with each other (now and then facing the camera to their audience) about the launch of KALI—Eden's first robotic probe—while the staff at the launch zone finished off the last inspections before take-off. Though Kali wasn't the only human-made structure launched into the heavens above (what with satellites once orbiting around the globe that predated the country's standstill progress three hundred years ago, and new ones soon after), it was the beginning of Eden's space exploration.

 _You see one, you see them all_ , Nero North's green eyes watched the images on the screen from his place under the shade of a white raised pavilion in the center of the park, letting a long yawn escape out of boredom. He hated how crowded it was inside the large platform as he was able to smell the immix of perfumes and perspiration from those around him; it made him want to gag.

Nero North was twenty-one, quite tall—standing at six-one—and athletically build on account of his military training over the years; short and messy brown hair gently dancing in the summer air, and skin lightly tanned from always venturing outdoors for the most part. A handsome young adult with almost symmetrical oval face, straight and dark eyebrows, a straight nose, and lips always curved a cheeky smile—though at the moment were downturned. He was used to the heat, but didn't mean he enjoyed being a pig on a spit. If it weren't for the woman standing next to him, watching the screen with much enthusiasm like the rest of the onlookers, he would be back at the base either training or reading—whichever was less vapid today.

The woman, Sera Schafer, was of his age; big blue eyes, strawberry blond hair neatly pulled back in an updo to help cool her thin neck from the heat, and porcelain skin glowing with the sunlight it might as well had been made of crushed glass. She was as cute as a little sister with her height of five-two and youthful heart-shaped face, petite nose, and lips where the top is a bit fuller than the bottom. Fortunately—or unfortunately, how one saw it—she was his HARMONY-partner since their preadolescent days. The two agreed on giving dating a chance two years ago, and so far, there were no complaints. Though Nero held no romantic feelings for Sera, it would be a pain in the ass to go through the Harmony facility and nullify the binding indenture between them—which was why he agreed to give Sera a chance; after all, he did care about her after knowing her the last two years. She just wasn't the person with whom he hoped to start a family, and time was ticking. That spot was for another, though unattainable. Damn, he felt like an ass when he thought about it in that way, but Nero couldn't help the harbored feelings for another woman (more like a girl four years his junior) when he was here with his Harmony-partner.

"I'm so excited!" Sera blurted in her bubbly voice as she clung to his arm in a vice-like grip. The grin on her face was broad and innocent like that of a child waiting to receive a gift of toys and candy from a parent.

Nero rolled his eyes, shaking his head in disbelief of how she was able to retain such pep after a night-shift in the morgue at Unity Institute of Forensic Science in South Avalon.

"You never cease to amaze me; you know that?" He loudly said through the insurmountable chattering around them.

"Well, I have to for the both of us since you want to be grumpy today. I don't know how you're not excited about this. It's the first space exploration. Eden has always focused on the country, and now it's time to extend that."

"I was expecting to reach out to the countries abroad. We never had contact with them in the last, what, five hundred years, or more since we broke off from the rest of the world? It was something my uncle was hoping for, before, you know..."

"He disappeared?"

"Yeah."

 _At least, according to the Council_ , he disappeared, he surmised. Nero, though a patriot, couldn't help but sleuth out his uncle's absence, especially with what the older man found inside those ruins.

Wayland North, a monk in the Order of the Dawn—and Nero's paternal uncle— went missing two years ago after coming across an old building in Eldiaport in East Eden that stood there roughly two millennia ago (predating Eden as a unified country). All Nero and his family knew was that his uncle came across singed and insect-chewed books that held the history of the town, and stories from what was legible; nothing suspicious there. It was in safe hands with whoever had it after Uncle Wayland left in a hurry. Nero suspected his cousin Caleb must've come in possession of the book for he, too, was a monk in the town of Snowhaven in North Eden. Maybe he could have some semblance of where his uncle disappeared, especially if having Kretschmann onboard in detective work since she was keen on piecing things together better than he can. The Kretschmann family had always had the luck of being highly proficient in everything they do, and genetics couldn't verify why nor how. Nero figured maybe that was why he was attracted to the girl, and not because of being a beauty herself.

"Look, Nero, it's starting!" Sera chimed as she shook his arm in excitement.

Nero gazed at the screen. The image of the two news anchors was now small and situated on the righthand corner of the projection, the shuttle that was carrying the probe exhibited for the people to see the full detail of the launching zone. It was clear skies with not a cloud above but a sea of blue that blended with the crystal clear water of the ocean. The sun, high and bright, glinting off the metal from the craft's body that reflected like a star from a distance as it stood erect with the help of the steel arm. Nero couldn't understand the excitement as the people of Eden had seen the takeoffs of satellites and whatnot many a time. So what if Kali was sent to space, giving glimpses of what was out there? The focus should've been about exploring their vast world rather than the unknown of deep space.

"Yay," Nero mocked as he leaned further into the wooden guardrail, the faint cracks of the white paint bending from his touch, and exposed the lightly splintered wood that pricked his fingertips. _Better let them know to fix that_ , he tutted at the lack of care and preservation of an old structure that was at least two hundred years old.

Sera retaliated, smacking his arm a few times at his lack of wonder, and being a jerk. The disapproving whispers from the people behind them (high society bastards like him) made Sera's face burn red, and Nero chuckled at her expense. Her innocence and sensitivity was the reason why he decided to maintain the Harmony indenture with her for the time being. Whom else was Nero to poke fun at without his ass getting pummeled? Certainly not Kretschmann for she was the stoic type, but he enjoyed the pleasure of embarrassing the girl whenever he had the chance—which he later learned was a bad idea. Honestly, if only that Freya Kretschmann were born the same year, they would've possibly been paired together for Harmony after their HORIZONs completion. What a shame. Regardless of being part of an old household, and a well-liked soldier and socialite among the upper crust of society, rules were rules; but, it didn't mean there weren't loopholes.

"You're an ass," Sera grumbled, her cheeks still flushed from the humiliation. Luckily, only a few of those that witnessed such a display continued to murmur and gossip about how unruly his Harmony-mate was behaving. Not that Nero cared about their disapproval.

"Never said I wasn't," Nero retorted as he impishly smiled at her. "Couldn't help myself. You're such an easy target to tease, Sera. That's why I like you."

"Well, that makes me feel a whole lot better, being your plaything to bully to your heart's content," she sarcastically replied.

"Aww, you're welcome," Nero said as Sera did nothing but incredulously gape at him, though halfheartedly. He grunted in irritation when she hit hard just a little above his private parts, but then resumed laughing at her expense. "Hardly felt a thing."

"Hmph. Jerk."

Smoke billowed about the space of the launch zone from the blazing engines as the shuttle that carried Kali took off. The crowd of people cheered when the perspective of the camera from the area switched to the probe's own. Everyone's eyes watched in fascination as the blue of the skies above slowly became increasingly dark after the boosters and tank detached from the craft itself.

After a specific time, Nero felt Sera's hand on his, blue eyes still in sheer awe at sight on the screen. He smiled at her fascination for something trivial, taking hold of her hand just for kicks, but regretted it when he felt her hand gently squeeze back.

As soon as the space probe made it to the dark sky among the shining stars, it was dazzling to behold. No, Nero was still adamant of his beliefs in exploring beyond Eden, but he didn't deny the beauty of celestial lights that remained static as they stippled the black abyss. Loneliness was what awaited there, save for the older rusted satellites that floated above Kali like an eerie and silent graveyard, all the while their live replacements acted as the mourners.

The probe hovered there for a surmountable time, give or take fifteen minutes as it was orbiting close to start its intended starting point with Kali's pilots guiding it from their control center. Still, Nero found it odd how Kali was still low from the other crafts up there. However, he wasn't the only one to notice this as he peered at the confused spectators on the pavilion, and the whispers that were given by those on the ground level who, just like he—the twenty percent—knew there was something wrong.

Kali was beginning to descend far from its intended destination. The camera that was mounted on it captured a random rock going past Kali, missing its impact on the probe. The camera then focused on the light of the sun, blinding the screen in its brilliance, obscuring any vision before it. Then, small shadows came from a distance before increasing in size, rushing like destriers on a battlefield as they charged unprejudiced at the metal craft, flinging chunks of rock and debris like the one that had missed it.

Spinning went the images of the camera when heavy debris from broken satellites impacted on the metal body when the probe was evading the rocks, throwing Kali off course as it was descending the thermosphere uncontrollably. The crowd remained silent as Kali malfunctioned further when it entered the stratosphere.

At last, entering the troposphere, Kali broke off into flaming pieces. From the images captured by the spinning camera, some scraps of the probe plunged into the ocean; other parts, who knew where they scattered.

The camera, finally, landed on a grassy field as far as the eye could see. There was hardly a tree within Kali's periphery. It was calm and isolated for a moment, but the gut-wrenching feeling of anxiety etched on the faces of the attending Edenites. Then, a quake in the camera hinted that something wasn't right. The image produced static and warped with the now malfunctioning camera.

"What's going on?" Nero heard a female behind him whisper to the other anonymous person.

"I don't know," came the reply of a low male voice.

It was like that. Person to person asking and wanting answers for what they were witnessing. Nero couldn't help but lean in further against the railing, anticipating what was causing the tremor that distorted the image on the screen. He wondered if Kretschmann was watching this as well back at the military base with the same fascination that he had.

There was a tug on his shirt sleeve that got his attention, finding Sera uneasy at the sight of the screen.

"N-Nero," Sera stuttered. The justifiable trepidation for whatever was producing the tremor replaced the once joyous glimmer of her blue eyes.

"It's alright, Sera. It could just be the plates reacting." Nero did his best to reassure her, but knew it was in vain.

The ground thundered and roared, echoing the magnitude within the empty field, and distorting the picture further; it was almost impossible to decipher what was happening. As Kali's camera once again aright itself, it captured the first signs of life: sprinting deer and fleeing birds. All of Eden knew what that meant when an animal runs: danger approaches. Something was coming, and though Nero still felt it was just nature acting up, he couldn't help the sense of foreboding course through his body.

 _Don't be stupid, Nero. There's nothing to fear but the Twelve's judgment. You're just irrational._ He continuously chided himself repeatedly, making sense of the first warning. Maybe, just maybe—he hoped—that it was the earth's plates that were causing this spectacle. _After all, animals knew when shit's going to hit the fan_.

Then came a disembodied scream caught with the embedded microphone on the camera as it rang throughout the field. There was no one around for Kali's camera to capture, until more thunderous sounds, at last, manifested in teams of horses ridden by people wearing green cloaks. Another scream boomed from behind Kali, agony, and pain calling for help. Whoever that unknown man was, despair was evident in his voice.

"The old tongue?" Nero whispered to himself, unknowingly catching Sera's attention from the view—not like she wanted to continue to see it anyway—as he paid close attention to whatever words were comprehendible from the screaming man.

 _"Commander! Help me! Don't let me die! I don't want to—"_ the man's pleads ignored as more horses fully galloped past the video.

"Nero," he heard Sera call him, and again she tugged at his shirt. "What's wrong?"

There was another cry, a female voice this time. _"Help me! Somebody! Mama! Mama!"_ The voice went silent after an agonizing scream.

 _What's going on?_ Nero shifted his attention away for a moment to answer Sera. "They're speaking in Old Edenite."

"I didn't know you knew an ancient language," Sera replied, keeping her focus solely on him and ignoring everything that the image was displaying.

"I'm a North. While the majority of Edenites understand a few words because of scripture from the Book of the Twelve, House North and all other members of the Eden nobility, as well as members of the Order of the Dawn, speak, write, and comprehend the old language. It's what we speak among each other."

"What did those people say?"Sera then shifted her gaze back at the holo-screen.

Before Nero had a chance to say more, screams from women and children, and shouts of horror from men, erupted the once quiet plaza. Nero turned back to the screen; eyes widened at the sight of something that was only thought a myth for a long time.

 _A Nephilim_ , the word echoed over and over, trying to come up with some logical sense of what he was witnessing.

Another giant humanoid went past the camera in an awkward attempt at running after a group of the cloak-covered cavalry that kept speeding away in one direction while others kept straight. Then came another and another, until there was about six or seven give or take, chasing after the people as wild predators do after escaping prey. When one turned back to go after the evading team of horses, the face of the gigantic and stark naked humanoid presented itself. Its eyes were large and brown, lips curled into a disturbing toothy smile, you thought it marked your very being; hair was long, blonde and unkempt; it was male from the angular and robust structure of its attributes.

_More Nephilim?_

Before him, Nero, at last, understood what happened to the unknown voices that cried to the wind. Wondering why the network wasn't shutting down the broadcast, people all over Eden, no matter what social class they hailed from, saw people ripped apart and feasted on by the beings Eden knows as the legendary Nephilim. Kali's camera captured the spatter of red painting green, of innards landing without a sound to the ground from one of the now dismembered cloaked figure, and the cries of those in the brink of death. The living didn't yield as they left corpses and soon-to-be-dead out there on the field of once verdant pastures, now covered in the symbolic color of what was once a living being.

With the last few quakes from the footfalls of these beasts, Kali, at last, shut down for good.

The once soundless mass of spectators, who gathered to witness the launching for Kali, voiced their anger and protests against the network for not shutting off the broadcast when the first screams announced a sign of life in that empty plain. Below the plaza from his perch in the pavilion, Nero overheard a conversation between a mother and child to his left. The child was a small boy no older than seven or eight-years-old, looking up at his mother and asked what it was that he witnessed. The boy's mother remained silent, with her eyes glued to the now apologetic man and woman on the screen, but she answered him nonetheless, even if it was a lie.

"It's strange," he heard Sera say as she pressed on; "I'm used to seeing dead people from crimes or natural causes, but witnessing one of many variations of death at before you is a lot different than having an already deceased person waiting for examination. I guess this is what you experienced during the rebellions in Snowhaven six years ago, only without Nephilim." She craned her head to meet his eyes. "How do you cope with seeing something like this?"

He didn't say anything at first. Yes, Nero's seen his share of death, from saving lives to ending them, but it doesn't mean he's used to it. "You don't," he whispered, knowing there was no form of comfort in his words.

Sera's face mirrored her thoughts. She was pensive from her lack of response. As the crowd began to disperse (possibly to reflect on what happened, or simply forget), Nero took the opportunity to flick Sera on her forehead to get her attention.

"Let's get out of here," he said. "I'll take you to the streetcar."

A nod of her head was her only reply as she gently rubbed her forehead from his action. Nero awaited some form of retaliation, but Sera was just silent like whatever he did was no offense to her.

  
  


It was a ten-minute walk from Orchard Park to the main street Commerce where the streetcar should be arriving in another five minutes. The once-bustling street filled with vendors and shops and eateries were lifeless despite the people walking up and down the sidewalks in an aura of gloom. Sera, beside him, remained just as quiet and in her thoughts. How could he help her get through the trauma when Nero himself never got over the battles during the rebellions in Snowhaven six years ago?

 _More like a slaughter_ , Nero opined in thought as he looked up to see the time on the corner skyscraper adjacent to the streets of Commerce and Sister Hill. _Two more minutes. Should I…?_

"Sera," Nero began, nudging her with his elbow on her arm to get her attention again. When she turned to him, he continued. "Do you want me to accompany you all the way home?"

Sera took a moment to think—which was only a few seconds—and she replied. "It's alright. You don't have to. I think I just want to be alone for a while, you know?"

Nero understood, but he insisted. In the end, Sera won as the streetcar's bell dinged loudly at its incoming arrival. When it finally arrived, the trolley stopped at the streetlight. The metal car painted in a dark shade of blue, and its decorative trimming of gilded roses and leaves and suns, gave it a touch of sophistication. The words on the side read AVALON EXPRESS also painted gold. It wasn't full like it always was during the day, but there were still quite a few people on board sitting on the benches with the back of their heads facing Nero and Sera's way; some gaze out at the street in blank stares. Nero knew it was time to bid farewell to Sera as his ride waited for him back at the park entrance.

"Ring me when you get home, ok?" Nero said to which Sera nodded. She gave a small smile and got onto the trolley. He waved to her when it rang its bell again, signaling that it was ready to leave. When it finally took off, Nero went walking back in the direction of the park.

Now, one would ask why he let his Harmony-partner ride the streetcar back home and not given her a ride. The answer was quite simple when the long black car pulled to the curb. The flags in a royal purple background with a golden rose and rays of the sun peering from behind it swayed in the hot breeze. The dark-tinted window of the front passenger side came down, revealing the stern face of his bodyguard. Nero often wondered why his parents insisted that he needed one. He was, after all, military-trained.

"Rudy," Nero greeted him with a halfhearted smile. He wasn't much up for his old shenanigans like he was earlier, not after what happened.

Rudy Wald was a no-nonsense type of guy in his early forties with clean-cut dark hair that showed signs of gray here and there, and a beard in the same coloration. The man's face was angular and harsh, but his hazel brown eyes were soft (at least for now), and a curved nose.

"You best get your ass in, Nero," Rudy continued, "Boss' looking for you back at the base. It seems your little escape plan has everyone in an uproar."

"Seriously?" Nero groaned as he let a hand run through his already messy brown hair. "Just once, I would like to get away from the prison that I call my life."

"Can't say I envy you, kid. Now, hurry up."

Not protesting, the door to the backseat clicked, and the hiss of the automatic door opened, awaiting for Nero to hop inside. Once inside the safety of the car, they left for their destination to the military base.

  
  


The thirty-minute drive was boring as always. Nero received Sera's message on his wrist communicator, stating that she got home safe. It made him relax some as the motions of the car were beginning to lull him to sleep. However, that was not to be as the tall, bright white building came to view. The chainlink fences surrounded the massive compound that was the Avalon-Branch Military Base. Behind the linked wall, a group jogged by in their standard PT uniform; another group (rookies most likely) performed pushups with someone surveying their progress. There were those in their formal Ranger uniform of a black jacket with a red trim on the lapels, black trousers, and polished black boots, walking by to the smaller white facilities that were a part of the compound.

The car halted at the gated entrance. The driver, Quinn Lane, demonstrated his credentials of his employment by House North. The man wasn't much of a talker, and only answered back if asked something. Quinn, like Rudy, was in his forties; but unlike his fellow bodyguard, the man was bald and tan. The only thing unique about him were the tattoos that he concealed under his pressed and pristine suit. Nero lowered the back window, and a young Watchman by the name of Peter Gore, peered at him. The kid was at least two years younger than him. He was tanned, dark blond hair, and warm brown eyes. His features were in the weird place between adulthood and boyhood, and of course, there was some light acne that made their home on Peter's face.

Nero, now and then, went out drinking with comrades and others, which also included Peter himself, as a form of bonding and getting to know every individual as he had with his household—which also extended to the families the Norths and their branch members married, as well as the illegitimate children. As Nero got to know him, Peter turned out to be a decent guy despite his reclusive nature; but, give him a drink, and you'll see how gregarious he truly was. When Nero got a notice from Sera about wanting to attend the event at Orchard Park, with Peter's help, a successful breakout commenced though short-lived. If Nero weren't a North, then permission granted to leave for the day was immediate; but as he was a North, he always relied on sneaking out with the help of more trusting comrades like Peter Gore and Freya Kretschmann.

 _I swear, Mom and Father have to stop this fucking coddling_ , Nero heavily sighed as he leaned further into the black leather seat.

"Captain," Peter greeted, surprise evident on his face as Nero lazily lifted a hand in return. Peter then whispered, "what happened?"

"Got caught," Nero sheepishly smiled. "Forgot to turn off my communicator when I snuck out and got tracked."

Peter merely shook his head in disbelief of the rookie mistake of someone like Nero as he backed away from the car. With a gesture of his hand to the guard in the control booth, the laser-barricade turned off, letting the vehicle pass inside the compound.

Rather than dropping him off at the tall building that was headquarters to await disciplinary action, Nero found Quinn continuing the drive in the direction of the one-story conference building to the left. Unlike the white stone used for the main building, this one was made of somewhat weathered-steel with a domed roof, and painted white. Looking out the window, Nero found higher rank officials ushered inside, and that had him curious.

A little further from the building were two people, a man and a woman, with their backs facing him seemed to be talking to someone, but stopped as soon as Quinn stopped the car in their direction. The woman that stood next to the man wore a fitted pale pink blazer and matching long skirt. Her black heels reminded Nero of ones his mother often wore (a golden rose on the buckles). When she turned around, Nero widened his eyes from the surprise that the woman was indeed his mother. The man next to her, his father in a fitted gray suit, as he, too, turned to see the car parked a few feet away, with a look of disapproval straight at the backseat where Nero sat. As a childhood reflex, one when Father gave him a look, Nero could do no more than to sink further into the seat and slid down so that the tips of his hair were all that was visible on the bottom edge of the window where Quinn stopped the car. The sound of his mother's heels grew closer, and Nero groaned in annoyance.

The tinted window of the backseat slid down, exposing his mother's worried face.

"Nero," his mother poked her head through the window, looking down at where Nero sunk himself between the gap of the backseat and driver's seat on the floor.

"Hi, Mom," droned Nero from his place, head leaning back as it rested on the backseat.

Mom's green eyes wanted to tear up, but the worried expression she bore on her aging face turned curious. "Nero, Sweetie, why are you on the floor?"

"I'm practicing for when I'm ready to commit myself into an insane asylum. So far, I think I'll look great in a straightjacket."

"Nero," Mom tutted as she backed away from the window. Another pair of footsteps came to a stop before the car. Her voice then turned pleading to his dad, no doubt. "Now, Ryskard, you promised me."

"Alright, Nero, your fun's over," Father furrowed his thick dark brows that the deep wrinkles on the North family patriarch's forehead reminded Nero of crashing waves against sharp and pointed rocks. His father then ordered Quinn to open the door, which the man dutifully obeyed. "We have pressing matters at hand, and I'm not going to deal with this childish attitude from you. Now, out."

"Ok, ok." Nero half-raised his arms in mock surrender as he used his legs to sit back on the upholstered seat, then made his way outside the car. "Can I ask why you two are here? Not that I don't find pleasure in your company."

Father said nothing as he glared at him for a moment before turning in the direction of the conference building. Mom stood next to him, her hand gently placed on his upper arm. Her smile wasn't lively as it always was, but taut as the fine frown lines seemed to become more profound at the moment. Something was up as they slowly walked toward the building.

"Your father was asked to come per the Chancellor's orders. Premier General Kretschmann should be arriving shortly. Aidan's inside already, along with Elwyn."

At the mention of his eldest brother, Aidan, Nero halted in his step. Surely his mother was joking. Aidan traveling from Arcadia to Avalon? Whenever Father journeyed away from Arcadia—the North's ancestral home—Aidan was always put in charge of the household duties with Father communicating the approvals of this or that. Elwyn was only a year older than Nero, but he wasn't a soldier. His brother exceeded in finances. So, why was he here? This situation further proved that something wasn't right, and Nero was ready to initiate an investigation.

"You were with the Schafer girl, right?" Mom broke his thoughts, but when he refused to voice anything as his mother continued. "How is she?"

"Sera's…distant, for now. We were at Orchard Park for that probe launch crap that she wanted to watch. It became a disaster about twenty minutes after."

"I heard."

"So, you didn't see it back home?"

Mom shook her head no at his question. He was glad that she didn't see the Nephilim devour people. She then replied, "Your Aunt Piraye told me all about it. She went with the ladies of my family's household to the amphitheater in Moon Oak Park to watch it with the rest of the people in Arcadia. Poor dears are completely shaken from the incident."

"So, how did you get here so quickly? Doesn't it take two hours to fly from Arcadia to Avalon?"

"We heard about your little prison break when you escaped four hours ago; so, your father and I had to come. We worry about you, you know."

Nero mumbled an apology, but his mother simply patted his arm in comfort. It was then that Mom resumed walking to the entrance of the domed building, passing through two soldiers that stood guard. Nero followed suit, wanting to know just what the hell was going on

 _Does it have anything to do with the Nephilim?_ Nero presumed as he saluted back to the two soldiers after they welcomed him back.

  
  


It took too long. Hours after the briefing, Nero found the beginnings of a headache from the pounding in his brain either from listening to strategies or from the heat—the latter seemed most likely as, before the screening, he and Sera strolled in the park before reaching the pavilion. After accompanying his family back to their vehicles, Nero headed back to the barracks that was further north and then a right. Passing by more steel hangers that caught the colors of the now twilit sky, he came across the terra cotta-bricked building that was his home away from home. Nero found his hand trembling when he reached for the door handle.

"For fuck sake, get it together," he cursed to himself. Gathering his nerve, he grabbed the handle and pulled, welcoming the cold air from the cooling units after lingering in the heat for a while.

The small hall was dim from the dark painted walls, and photographs of honored soldiers in black frames hung along the corridor. The chemical smell of sanitation told Nero that the cleaning crew had just done their chore not long ago, maybe ten minutes or so. The light that emanated from the recreational room to his right let him know that people lingered there doing who knows what. As Nero neared the open floor, his gaze went from the two abandoned billiard tables to his left; the empty seats that faced the turned-on holo-screen with some soap opera playing at low volume straight ahead, and next to that were doors that led to the training room. Then he spotted a woman sitting in the gray-colored armchair with the back of her head facing him on his right. The armchair adjacent to her, separated by a low side table in between the two seats that faced the view of the compound in the glow of the sunset through the large window in front of her, outlining the contours of her and whatever it touched in its light.

"Well?" The young woman continued in an all-too-familiar voice; "Are you just going to stand there like one of the statues of the Twelve, or did you forget _again_ where your sleeping quarters are, Captain? You should take care of yourself."

Nero softly chuckled, for he wasn't much in a teasing mood as always when he was around her after all the shit that happened earlier today. He silently made his way to her. He didn't take the seat beside her, but stood behind as he angled himself to envelop Freya Kretschmann in an embrace that caught her off-guard from the small gasp she let out. Nero rested his head between the crook of her neck and her delicate shoulder.

"What are you—?"

He hushed her before continuing. "Let me stay like this for a moment. Please?" Nero whispered overwhelmed as the image of the giant humanoids, and the cries of dying people played in his head over and over, then from the meeting that ended a while ago, which made things worse. Nero's mind played back memories of dead bodies of men, women, and children that painted the snows in the town of Snowhaven in that same shade of red six years ago have now etched a new memory of splattered red on the verdant fields of the strange land Kali had crash-landed.

He felt Kretschmann relax as she resumed reading a worn-out book that was read countless times by her, and he was grateful to her for letting him this close. Holding her in this manner was something Nero wanted to do for the last year. There was just something about Freya Kretschmann that made him feel…safe. Nero closed his eyes as he inhaled the subtle yet sweet perfume of lilies and something else he couldn't figure out. He counted his luck that Kretschmann didn't bust his face with the back of her head as there were times she almost did. She probably felt he just needed this, he assumed.

"This goes against conduct, Captain North."

"I know."

"Anyone that passes by will get the wrong idea."

"Don't care. I'll take responsibility and defend your honor, my lady, should it occur."

"Is it Snowhaven?" Kretschmann asked as her fingers ghostly brushed his forearm before retracting it back to flip the page in her book. It was a rare form of comfort coming from her. Nero knew how antisocial she was, but just that action alone, no matter how brief, confirmed that she cared. "You're weight on me tells me it is. Am I correct to assume, Captain North?"

Nero affirmed with a hum, leaning further in the crook of her neck, almost nuzzling her. "I keep telling you that you can call me by my name. You don't have to be so formal, Kretschmann," he uttered to her. Nero then tilted his head, resting his chin on her shoulder, and opened his eyes to glance at the words in her book. It wasn't a romance novel she was reading (as she did two weeks prior), but a children's book he read himself when he was but a boy of ten. The tale of a girl traveling into a dimension that looked like her home, but was all an illusion. The ending was quite depressing when the reader found the protagonist to have been dead the entire time. _What a morbid book for children_ , Nero opined, he then spoke to Kretchmann once again. “Did you watch the broadcast of that probe launch earlier?”

"No, but I heard about your latest escape that had this place in an uproar when your father mentioned he was arriving in Avalon."

"I kind of regret sneaking out. I wasn't interested in going, but I promised Sera I'd go. So I did, and now I have a new Snowhaven in my mind."

Kretschmann was silent for a moment as if choosing the right direction for the conversation to go. In the years Nero knew her, Freya Kretschmann was honest in her words, but they lacked emotion. He wouldn't say her voice was monotonous, but it borderline in an odd place with notes of silveriness here and there; for others, it was impossible to tell whether she was sarcastic or sincere, but Nero knew. Now, to some, it seemed she never expresses her feelings, but she does in her way. Whenever Nero poked fun at her expense, she subtly retaliates or lets loose on him during a spar; when his jests were funny, her lips tighten and disguise her laugh with a clearing of her throat; when he sneakily plucked a single bloom of a boat orchid from the bouquet of a female private, and gave it to Kretschmann, her eyes expressed what her lips refused to convey: a smile.

"That bad?"

"Worse."

Nero stared at her delicate profile, committing every detail into memory. The visual representation of what his ideal of a highborn lady should look like: heart-shaped face, round and expressive blue eyes accompanied by her dark and arched brows, a petite nose with a slight upturn, and lips neither thick nor thin, but there was a bit of a curve of her upper lip. Her dark brown hair was braided and pinned back, but she allowed her bangs to sweep to her left. He felt her angle her head to look his way, probably sensing his lingering stare. Kretschmann's cheeks flushed pink on her fair skin from the situation that she preferred to return her focus to her book, her shoulders once again stiffened. Nero still kept his eyes on her.

"Do I have something on my face, or would you like to talk about it, Sir?" Kretschmann asked, dog-earing the page she was on in her book before closing it. "You said it helped, however little."

"It's fine. I just want to stay like this with you as my crutch, if you don't mind, Lady Freya?"

"Your crutch will be generous and give you two more minutes, my lord."

"Can we make it five?"

"I suppose."

"How about ten?"

"Don't push it."

Just as promised, Kretschmann gave him his solace of holding her for five more minutes. He felt cold when he had to let her go, but controlled himself of pulling her to him and hungrily kiss her when she stood from her seat. The Kretschmann clan was known to uphold duty over self-indulgence, and that was the reason, to Nero, at least, that made Lady Freya Kretschmann such a taboo that he desired her all the more.

"Freya,"

"Yes, my lord?"

"Always look forward and never look back, but make sure someone watches your six."

Freya looked puzzled of what he told her. It's not like it was the first time he said those words, but maybe it was in the manner of tone he said it while putting a front of being perfectly fine.

"I'll do well to remember that…Nero." The small twitch of her mouth that formed a slight smile staggered Nero, but all the more so that she, for once, called him by name.

"About time," Nero couldn't help his lips form a smile of his own, though brighter.

As soon as Freya bade him a good night and left the room, he sat down in the chair she previously occupied. Her warmth on the seat was almost nonexistent, but it was enough for him to make sure she used to be there. The smile gone and replaced with pain and regret for in two days, Nero and a small unit of soldiers chosen by the higher-ups, as well by the Chancellor himself, are to be shipped off to the Nephilim-infested land for rescue.

_It is what I wanted, wasn't it? To try and make contact with the countries outside Eden? How ironic that my indenture with Sera got annulled solely based on this mission, yet I find out that the person I want is promised to another man by both Harmony and arranged through their houses. The damn government bastards never negated Harmony during the rebellions, but they did now like we're never coming home._

Nero couldn't help but laugh through his distress of how life loved to screw him over. Father wasn't able to talk the bastards out of drafting him no matter how much he protested. It's not that Nero was a coward, death was as unprejudiced now as it was back during the battles. He would fight, that much was clear. However, he couldn't help the inkling of some form of conspiracy against his household. There was his cousin Caleb where the abbot sent him and one other to Snowhaven. Though the rebellion was over in the town, there was still civil unrest among the people, and the level of violence escalated by a fraction than before the uprising. Then his uncle Wayland disappeared before that. From what his cousin told him, the books were nothing to raise suspicion. So, why did Uncle Wayland left in such a hurry all the while entrusting Caleb with the ancient texts? Now, here was Nero, the only noble shipped out of Eden to this far away place where he could potentially die. Against the Nephilim, who knows if the META serum injected in him as a child would be enough to keep him, and those in his squad alive?

_Freya, forgive me if I don't make it back._


	2. Eren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren performs menial tasks around the castle that is their headquarters. While toiling away, Eren begins to lose some self-assurance about his friends joining the Survey Corps, all the while pondering an answer to Commander Erwin Smith’s cryptic question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here’s our first Canon Character. Let’s dive right in!

Eren watched as clouds went by through the opened window on the top floor of the castle that was Headquarters for the Survey Corps. It was unbelievable that he was, finally, a part of the regiment that he dreamed of being a part of for so long. While he was to be overseen by the Levi Squad, Eren felt it a dream to be among them though a bit intimidating, mainly, by a particular small captain.

At the thought of said man, Eren pulled the white cloth he used as a mask back in place and resumed his chore of sweeping the hell out of the dusty room. He had to make sure it was spotless unless he wanted another tongue lashing from Captain Levi again about his lack of care. Though it was psychosomatic, Eren could still feel the beating he received by his captain during the trial for his life. He understood he went a bit overboard when yelling at the court officials, but Eren felt compelled to protect Mikasa for once as she _always_ did the defending. At the thought of that, he wondered what his friends were doing now, and if those in the top ten decided, after all, to join the Military Police in the interior of Wall Sina.

_I can't say I blame them_ , Eren thought as he gathered the dust on the floor in a neat little pile for easy pick-up. Then all thought went to the cryptic words from Commander Erwin Smith after the Sonny and Bean incident. ' _Who do you think the enemy is?'_ _Why would Commander Erwin ask such a strange question?_ _I wonder if Squad Leader Hange has recovered from her hysterics over the death of those two titans. She's a peculiar one._

The last was to wipe down the furniture that he covered with the white sheets to prevent them from getting dusty again, and with sore arms, Eren was sure that they were on the verge of falling off. Today was the second day of the endless cleaning, but, according to Petra Ral (one of the soldiers hand-picked by Captain Levi himself), today should be the last day of cleaning the castle to utilize every room and accommodate everyone again. Eren had learned his lesson on the first day: everything must be up to Captain Levi's standards.

"Who knew he was such a clean freak?" Eren mumbled as he glided a rag on the surface of a small and simple wooden table, but he did admit that the small chamber smelled fresh and clean rather than the pungent smell of dust, mold, and other unpleasant odors that lingered for so long within the confines of the room. _I think it was a dead animal that made it reek_ , he thought.

Eren let out a huge sigh of satisfaction when finally done. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he took all his cleaning supplies and proceeded to head out to the corridor and down to the ground level. However, as soon as he turned to the right in the direction of the stairs, Eren stopped in his tracks. He stiffened at the sight of Captain Levi walking his way with the same disinterest he expressed daily. Today, the captain wasn't in his cleaning gear like he was the day before. On the contrary, the short man was wearing the standardized tan jacket of their military uniform, and the green cloak that was only worn by members of the Survey Corps.

"By the look of your dying face, I'm guessing the room's clean?" Captain Levi asked as he came to a complete stop in front of Eren.

Eren flinched at the low voice, remembering the beating he endured a few days ago. It seemed that every time the captain so much as twitched, Eren couldn't help but recoil on instinct. Swallowing the lump that lodged in his throat, he answered the captain back, "Yes, sir."

Captain Levi then resumed his walk, passing by Eren as he then entered into the chamber that he just cleaned; at least he hoped it was to the man's contentment. Following suit after placing the cleaning equipment by the door, Eren watched as Captain Levi inspected every corner of the room, gliding his hand on surfaces to feel any dust or grime when he rubbed his thumb across the pads of his fingers. There was nothing but silence in the room that Eren swore he heard his heartbeat throughout the area, but it was the captain's footsteps that echoed about in the small space.

Turning back in the direction of the door, Captain Levi walked past Eren in his sturdy gait, then paused for a moment. Angling his head so as the captain's dark hair wasn't in the way of getting a better look at him, Eren stiffened at the critical gray eyes of Captain Levi, feeling the beads of nervous sweat forming on his forehead.

"Looks like you're a fast learner, Yeager," Captain Levi said before adding, "I guess your brain ingrained that reprimand from yesterday along with that little beating the day before that. Good job. We have supplies coming in later today, so I want you to see to that with the others before you do the yard."

"Sir!"

With that, Captain Levi walked back in the direction of the stairs. Once gone, Eren collapsed to the floor on his knees, relishing not only the pride that coursed through his body from approval of the man he admired since he was a boy, but of the relief that the said man was gone and will be for the rest of the morning.

Eren tilted his head back, so his gaze focused on the stone of the ceiling. There was some weathering here and there, some fine cracks on the grout that lightly crumbled from being abandoned for so long that those same lines spidered to the brick below it, but the stone wasn't where Eren's mind wandered to, it was what was to occur tonight. _Today's the day that the 104_ _th_ _Training Corps graduates choose what regiment to join_ , he thought. _I wouldn't blame them for selecting either the MPs or the Garrison unit. Not everyone's cut out to be a Scout._

"Eren!" He heard a voice shout his name from the staircase. It was Gunther's voice. Though it was a mere two days, Eren made it a mission to memorize the names and recognize the voices of his new comrades. "We need to get the storage room organized before the wagons arrive."

"Coming," he called back. Standing back at his full height, Eren grimaced at the thought of more work ahead. Stretching his limbs until he heard a pop, he grabbed the cleaning supplies that he left by the door and made his way down the stone staircase. Eren sighed and then quietly kvetched of the next chore on the list, "I can't ever catch a break, can I?"

* * *

By the time he finished helping with the prep of the storage room, it was already noon from the position of the sun at it's highest point. Eren went to clean up the yard, as promised when Captain Levi mentioned it the night before to Squad Leader Hange. Letting out a long yawn from a sleepless night, he made a mental note never to mention anything that could potentially pique the curiosity of the woman; or Eren should keep his mouth shut from then on around her. It was in the early hours when they discovered the decaying corpses of the two titans, and because of regaling all her detailed findings of her research, Eren didn't go to bed. He now regretted it as he pulled another weed in between the stone trail that led to the entrance of the castle.

"It makes you feel good, doesn't it?" Petra Ral asked as she continued pulling the weeds in an overgrown spot in the yard, never once looking up at Eren.

From his periphery, Eren could see a smile gracing her lips and her brown eyes exuding what he felt earlier when Captain Levi approved of his cleanliness of the chamber a while ago. Petra tucked back her short hair behind her ear as she meticulously pulled just the weeds without adding harm to the flowers that had grown in the area. Eren found the color of her hair odd, for he couldn't tell whether it was blond or red. (Maybe strawberry-blond? Copper?) Of the Special Operations Squad, Petra Ral and Eld Jinn were the ones that were friendlier and approachable—not that the other two weren't; they just approached it differently than the woman next to him.

"Uh, what?" Answered a confused Eren as he took a brief pause from the chore. _My back's killing me_ ; he groaned lightly at the soreness from his lower back. It took a few seconds to comprehend what Petra meant and again replied, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, it makes you appreciate the hard work it takes to keep everything clean. I guess this became a habit for you guys?"

"Naturally with someone like the captain. I cleaned, but not like this. He once said that there's clean and there's _clean_. In other words, the captain said the first one is a load of bull; it's an insult to the very definition of the term, he said. Captain Levi has a very critical eye for these kinds of things."

"I gathered as much when we first arrived here," Eren nervously laughed at the memory of their headquarters in disrepair and the stony-faced captain when he stared at the place in disgust.

"Do you want to take a break?" Asked Petra as she dusted off her hands before standing up.

"Sure," Eren wiped his own hands on his stained white trousers from kneeling on the ground and followed Petra to a shaded area that was provided by the wall and angled roof of the building.

Taking a seat on the cold stone, Eren sighed in relief. He hadn't taken a break all day, and took the opportunity to simply relax and close his eyes for a minute—or five. The gentle rustling of the foliage around them from the cool of the late spring breeze was delightful for Eren needed such coolness after toiling away from the menial chores of the day. Though it was grueling work, he had to agree with Petra on the satisfaction these tasks provided. It was a necessary evil in his books.

He and Petra remained silent throughout their break. Eren, almost falling asleep in the process and not noticing, had his head twist and turn until it decided just to hang down; it was comical. He heard Petra stifle a giggle, but failed—which made him wake up once again. Damn, he was exhausted.

"You two look like you're having a great time," said Eld Jinn as he approached them. Behind the man was the rest of the Levi Squad: Gunther Schultz and Oluo Bozado.

Petra, at the sight of Oluo, harrumphed and turned her head to her left as if offended. Oluo, on the other hand, let a smirk show as it deepened the frown lines around his mouth, making him look a lot older than he was. The very gesture was like it was some great badge of honor to tease the woman that sat next to Eren. He was confused about the relationship between the two, but decided it was probably wise to stay out of it. When the three men came to a stop, Petra was on her feet while Eren remained seated.

"We were just having a little break," Petra replied, but kept her face away from them. "Are the supplies stored away?"

"Yeah, we finished," Gunther answered with his hands resting on his hips.

"It would've been nice if you had joined us, Petra dear," Oluo said with his arms folded across his chest. "It seems you've gotten a bit lazy, and that won't do. It makes me wonder how that will affect your performance on the field."

Petra glared at Oluo. "Stop trying to mimic the captain, Oluo. It's in poor taste. Besides, your cravat is twisted."

At that, Oluo looked down at his cravat and carefully readjusted the piece of cloth around his neck. Eren, finally, understood what had Petra show her dislike to the man. From the way she spoke of Captain Levi, he noticed the admiration she had for him, much like when he did when he was ten.

_Did Oluo cut his hair like Captain Levi, too?_ Eren tilted his head to the right in curiosity like a dog would to get a better look at someone or something that garnered its attention.

"Knock it off you two. I'm not going to repeat it. Anyway, there was more food for the horses than for us. I swear, I can't survive on pottage and bread alone. It's driving me nuts." Gunther then sighed in irritation, but his frustration was understandable.

Meat was a precious commodity within the interior of the Walls. When Wall Maria fell, the lands that livestock and wild game occupied became infested by titans, which in turn made meat scarce and the prices high. In his cadet days, and as a refugee, after the fall in his home in the district of Shinganshina, all he and the rest of the rookies ate was bread and potato soup, stews, and bread. (Any piece of meat was rare and rationed; whoever found one in their plate was lucky). Before the Colossus Titan showed up again days ago, another rookie, Sasha Braus—christened "Potato Girl" from eating said spud during first introductions—managed to steal a portion of smoked meat from the Officer's provisions, offering to share with her fellow soldiers. It's not like it was better in the Survey Corps, since potatoes and other vegetables were still the staple of any soldier's diet. Then he wondered if all regiments provided the same meals.

Gazing at his hand, Eren may not understand his power, nor how he gained it, but with it, he _will_ make sure to reclaim the lands lost and his home after killing the titans. His determination didn't stop at Shinganshina, but further to the edge of the world. According to Armin, the sea was out there, where salt was never-ending. Such wonders made Eren's resolution all the more stronger.

* * *

There was the chill that accompanied the early mornings, and today, it was even colder when Eren woke up in his lone cot in the cellar that was his room—at least for the time being. He didn't want to get up, opting to just stay in his cot and keep warm within the confines of his blanket for a few more minutes. After his chores yesterday, Eren was glad Hange Zoe wasn't there during dinner like the night before, telling him more left out findings in her research before being urgently disrupted. That night, he finally got some sleep.

Normally, Eren wouldn't stay in bed and doze off the rest of the day inside the confines of the warm sheets—which was something he did as a child, during chilly mornings—but from the lack of sleep, he made the exception (just a bit) as he was still exhausted.

_Just a few more minutes_ , Eren reasoned with himself as he closed his eyes.

He was content that the clean up was over with, but it still had to be done with haste at the first sign of a spot. For now, he only relished in the warmth of the white sheets in the chilly morning. However, it wasn't to be when Eld opened the cellar door as it creaked from lack of lubricant to its iron hinges, calling to him that it was time to feed the horses. Eren couldn't help but groan yet complied as he unraveled himself from the blanket. Once the blond-haired man got to the iron bars of his cell that separated Eren from Eld, he planted his feet onto the paved floor. If his cell was cold, the stone ground was freezing. He did have a small window that let a bit of light come through, but it hardly warmed up the place.

After getting ready for the day and eating the same pottage made from cream, cheese, shredded carrots, broccoli, and (yes) potatoes with a side of hard bread at the mess hall, Eren prepared for the first chore of the day: feeding the horses.

Inside the tack room that was beside the stables, Eren walked the distance, passing by the bridles with reigns and girths that hung on the hooks along the walls, then past the stack of saddles and saddle pads, in the direction that stored the food for the horses. It wasn't a large wing, only the brown wooden barrels that held the crimped oats, rolled barley, and beet pulp had enough room to be there; the bales of hay were in an immediate area. Eren took one of the remaining pails that were conveniently placed on a shelf and made for the barrels, portioning a mixture of oats and beet pulp for his horse, then made his way back to the stables carrying the full five-pound bucket in hand.

He found Gunther and Eld sitting on the stone steps of the well to his left just a little past the stables, sipping on water from the metal steins in their hands after they completed their tasks. In front of his horse, Eren carefully lifted the wooden pail to the equine—who, by the way, nickered with excitement at the gentle sound of grain coming—as the large animal stuck its head out in waiting for its daily portion.

"Easy," Eren laughed as the horse, like the glutton it was, dove right into the pail and helped itself rather than waiting for it to go in the trough. "It's not going anywhere."

The two men were in a deep conversation, and though Eren wasn't nosy, the subject was about who intentionally killed the two titans earlier the day before. He wasn't part of the people inspected for he had an alibi, and that person was with the titan-loving Fourth Squad Leader Hange Zoe. Eren hated the titans to the core, but even he found the value of experimentations on Sonny and Bean. This setback was a detriment to humanity after their first victory in Trost. He couldn't place a finger on who was the culprit for it could be anyone. The only motive Eren came to mind was hate for the creatures.

Eren, with a gentle hand, stroked the horse's neck to simmer down some as it continued to feast.

"Hey, Eren!" Gunther called to get his attention. "You know if anyone from your training group who wants to join us?"

"Yeah, there're a few," he immediately replied as he looked to the darkly tanned man, but then turned his head back in the direction of his horse with the confidence in his previous answer nonexistent as he proceeded. "Or, at least, there were. I'm really not so sure now."

The hooves from a horse in full gallop echoed their way. Gunther placed his cup down along with Eld as they stood from their seat on the steps, with Gunther ordering to fall in. At the sight of Captain Levi, Eren immediately placed the bucket on the ground, much to the protest from his horse and made his way to the other two. The captain's black horse came to a stop from the pulled reigns, neighing as it did so. Gunther and Eld approached Captain Levi with a salute of the left hand behind their back and a closed right fist to their hearts.

"Make ready, people! We're going on patrol." Captain Levi ordered.

"Yes, sir!" The two answered.

"Good morning, Captain! Reporting for duty, sir!" Eren said with a salute to the man on horseback.

"Eren. You will stay within ten meters of me at all times. The only reason you're out of your cell is because I'm keeping an eye on you. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Let's ride!"

* * *

The sun was nearing its setting point by the time Eren and the rest of the Special Operation Squad got back from patrolling the area. It was a standard routine of surveying the perimeter for any suspicious person that might happen to be the potential titan-slayer from the previous day. So far, it was calm with only the birds making the leaves in the trees rustle from their perch on the higher branches, or wild rabbit that sprinted away from the sounds of their galloping horses.

After placing his horse in its stall, with Oluo supervising him, Eren removed all the equipment off of the creature and went to store it back inside the tact room. Enjoying what little freedom he had left before the experiments performed by Squad Leader Hange began in the coming days, Eren saw members of the corps walking the small distance in the direction of the castle. At sight a few feet away, Eren watched as soldier after soldier walked past him, hoping to find friendly faces among the fresh ones. Coming at the rear, he found one. The flaxen hair of his best friend Armin Arlert had Eren excited. Standing tall beside the blond was Mikasa, fiddling with the green cloak with the blue and white feathers of the Wings of Freedom on the back that was a part of the Survey Corps uniform. It was foreign to him to see his friends wearing the same cloak, but it was the same reaction Eren had when he donned the article himself. He no longer had to fall in the reverie of one day being a part of the Survey Corps as he was already here, and his friends as well.

"Oluo," said Eren as he got the attention of the man who was leaning against the stone wall of the stables, a stein in hand. He then continued, "do you mind if I talk to my friends a bit?"

Oluo made a noise, but then added, "Go ahead."

"Hey!" Eren called to the two who paused their trek, running the short distance.

"Eren!" Armin turned and greeted with a smile at the sight of him.

Coming to a stop, Eren shared the same feeling of being around them again. He was happy that they both chose to join the corps, even though he felt discouraged earlier of not knowing whether Armin or Mikasa had changed their minds. When they were still cadets in the Training Corps, Eren had tried to dissuade the two from joining, but he was glad they were both adamant in not leaving him behind.

"It feels like it's been so long."

Eren then turned to Mikasa who's surprised face was then etched with worry. In quick steps, she took hold of his hand as a means of confirming he was real and not just a figment of her imagination.

"Eren!" Mikasa said as she continued with her questions running a mile per second. "Have they hurt you at all? Did they give you some sort of invasive examinations? Did you suffer any mental stress?"

"Uh, no. Nothing like that." Eren felt guilty for worrying his adopted-sister, but there wasn't anything he could do to get in contact with them. He was, in a way, on a probation period until he could earn the Levi Squad's trust.

Trust. That was something Gunther had once told him about building relationships with his comrades with trust. It was something that he noticed about the Survey Corps; there were no secrets nor hidden agendas. It was like everyone here had this sense of faith among each other like _family_.

"That shorty is too full of himself," Mikasa's face grew grim. "One of these days, I'll take him down a peg."

_Shorty? Surely she doesn't mean…?_ Eren couldn't help but feel nervous at her words as if they were some blood oath. "You can't be talking about Captain Levi." Mikasa, in Eren's opinion, was strong, but Captain Levi was no force to reckon with either, especially with being a veteran soldier with years of experience.

"Eren!" It was Connie. Eren couldn't believe that the short boy was also here with them.

_Didn't he want to join the MPs?_

Then more of his fellow trainees began to crowd around him, Armin, and Mikasa. Potato Girl was there along with Reiner and Bertolt, and Krista with Ymir.

"You guys joined the Survey Corps, too?" Eren then knew some people were missing from the top ten of his graduating class. "Then only Annie, Marco, and Jean went with the Military Police. Everyone else wither joined the Corps or the Garrison."

There was a somber look among them, Eren noted when he made mention of those not present among them.

"Marco's dead," said a voice from behind him.

Eren angled his head to the side, and found the grim horse face of Jean Kirstein. It was unbelievable to find Jean among the recruits for the Scouts. Like Connie, Eren thought the boy that hailed from Trost joined the Military Police as that was all he bragged about, especially with Marco Bott. Speaking of the freckled boy, Eren believed the other to be messing with him, but even when Eren uttered the question, it still felt untrue.

"Marco's…dead?"

"Apparently, not everyone gets to have a dramatic death. I don't know what his last moments were like, but he wasn't wearing vertical maneuvering gear. He died, and nobody was there to see it.

"Eren, I heard you tried to kill Mikasa when you turned into a titan. What the hell was that about?"

The question caught Eren off-guard. It wasn't the first time he heard about the incident. During his trial, it was Rico Brzenska's report that testified his rogue behavior. He didn't understand then as he did now. He was at fault for what happened to Mikasa as he looked at the scar on her right cheek after Jean pointed it out to which his sister tried hiding with her short black hair. That thought brought a new weight of guilt on his shoulders.

"It seems to be true. After turning into a titan, I tried to kill Mikasa." It was all Eren could tell Jean. There wasn't any more to say as that was the extent of his knowledge of the situation.

Jean, however, pressed on in his verbal tirade against him, but he couldn't blame him. "'Seems to be?' So you have no memory of it? In other words, until now, you had no idea you even possessed this titan power and have no means of keeping it under control?"

"Yeah. That's about it."

Turning to the rest of their peers that gathered after around them, Jean continued in his berating of him. "This is what our lives and the fate of humanity ride on. This is what we'll die for, and like with Marco, Eren won't even know about it."

At the mention of Marco, Eren flinched, but then he reflected what happened before that when he had a small squad of their friends when protecting Trost. The faces of Thomas, Mina, Mylius, Samuel, and Nac flashed in his mind, and the guilt settled in further. His stupid and reckless decision of not accepting Thomas' death and believing he could save him somehow, Eren led his squad to their deaths as they attempted to rescue _him_ after losing his leg by a surprise attack from a titan below.

"Jean," Mikasa said as if warning the other, again coming to his defense. "What's the sense in driving Eren into a corner here?"

"Look, Mikasa, not everybody is like you. We're not all volunteering to die for Eren." Jean then turned to him as he continued chastising the girl. "All of us, Eren included, should know what our lives are going to be used for. Otherwise, we might hesitate in a crisis; but we're looking to Eren to give us something in return. Let us carefully appraise its value so we can decide whether it's worth our lives.

"So, Eren," Jean approached closer to Eren, grasping at his shoulders in a firm grip. Eren stared into the fierce brown eyes of Jean Kirstein, but felt the boy's body tremble from the grip on his shoulders. "Seriously, we're counting on you."

_He's scared, but he's putting his faith in me,_ Eren gathered from the interaction. Then his eyes looked to the rest of the group, finding each face just as frightened yet determined to place their trust in him. Eren turned his head back Jean's way and uttered, "Right."

Letting go, Jean turned away from him and proceeded to head inside the castle. The rest of the group followed suit with only Mikasa and Armin at his side as they watched the backs of their comrades, their new cloaks billowing with every step they took. Eren wondered if Marco had lived, would he, too, had joined the Scouts with the rest of them? It was then that he remembered something crucial yet odd in Jean's words about finding the corpse of the boy.

_It's odd that Marco wasn't wearing his vertical maneuvering gear. Did it stop functioning and just removed it, so the weight didn't slow him down?_ Eren, in a way, felt sorry for Jean. He knew how close those two were during their training days with the freckled boy, in some form, eased Jean when riled up much like his friends did for him.

"Eren," Oluo called him as he approached them.

Eren understood that it was time to head back, too. He then answered before turning to his friends. "Got to go. I'm under supervision, but I'll see you at the mess hall."

"Eren!" called Mikasa, her voice sounding imploring, but all he could do was smile to assure her that everything was fine.

Armin took hold of her arm; a smile sent his way. "Come on, Mikasa. We'll see him again."

Eren saw her give in, gently nodding her head. Before she followed the rest of their peers inside, she took a last longing look at him, then made her way with Armin in the direction of the castle.

"Come on, let's go eat. I heard there's _meat_ being served today rather than stew on account of welcoming the new batch of recruits." Oluo said, hand on a hip while the other still holding an almost emptied stein in the other. "So, eat your fill while you still can on account that it's going to be a good while before we see it on the menu again."

"Right," Eren agreed, but then turned to Oluo with sudden curiosity about what the man just said. "Hey, how come you guys didn't throw a welcoming for me when I joined the Scouts?"

"Because, you're, in a way, still a prisoner despite _given_ to the Scouts. Until Captain Levi declares you not to be a threat, you're still like a dog on a tight lead. Don't worry. Once your probation is up, and we get back from the upcoming expedition, we'll throw you a little celebratory party when we get close to Wall Maria."

"I'll give it my all!" Eren gave a salute with unbridled determination, surprising Oluo in the process.

The man then went back to his mimicry of Captain Levi, trying to act nonchalant. Eren thanked whoever that Petra wasn't here to chastise the man again for his failure at capturing the essence that was their captain. He then looked to the darkening sky, quietly watching the clouds bathed in the setting sun's rays as they colored in ranges of pinks and orange and yellows with the blue up above.

_We'll make it. I promise we will. The sea is out there with endless salt, frozen lands, and fiery lakes. This world is our birthright, and I'm going to get it back._


	3. Levi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a rainy night, Levi finds himself reflecting about the past and the upcoming expedition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my third time writing this chapter, because Levi is such a difficult character to write. Fair warning, if you haven’t read or seen No Regrets, consider this chapter a SPOILER warning.
> 
> Another thing, if you find the quotation mark at the beginning, but not at the end, it means that character is still talking until there’s an end quotation mark at the sentence. Just letting you know, so you won’t be confused.

The pitter-patter of water softly tapping the windowpanes of the soundless chamber, that was Levi's room, quietly echoed as he rigorously cleaned his vertical maneuvering gear in the comfort of his armchair with the dim light provided by the lantern on his desk that bathed the stone walls in an orange glow. Every few minutes, he would take a brief pause in his efforts and watch the raindrops stick to the glass with the flame highlighting the droplets against the night sky. He hated the rain, but not for the filth produced in the aftermath; it was for personal reasons.

Levi made a face after he drank from his teacup, finding the black tea all but cool. The bitterness left a shitty taste in his mouth, much to his displeasure. He preferred his tea hot and fresh, but he guessed he cleaned for a long while without knowing what time it was. Sitting back in his chair after setting his equipment down, Levi tiredly sighed as he rested his right arm on the chair while his left propped to support his chin, and his gray eyes solely focused on the rain outside.

Memories of a sudden downpour six years ago flashed in his mind, trailing the ghosts of a tall blond-haired man and a petite red-haired girl.

 _It's been a while_ , he brooded for a moment, which Levi rarely did.

Furlan Church and Isabel Magnolia hadn't been in his thoughts for some time, not even when it rained, but something about the upcoming expedition made his mind look back at old recollections. Levi never forgot his first real friends from his days living in the Underground, just only kept them at bay to forget about the crucial decision he made that led to their deaths on that rainy day.

The flashbacks of those two scenes, though he got past it, still had a profound effect on him. Furlan's last wave to him as he got devoured by a Titan with Levi severing the belly of the fucking beast only to recover the blond's top half. Then there was his finding of Isabel's severed head with her eyes still open with the fear of her last moment etched on her face, and Levi closing them so that she may finally rest. Losing his friends, he let all his fury unleash at not only to the Titans, but showing the same hostility to Erwin Smith—who was only a Squad Leader at the time—as well. However, that man convinced him of who their real enemy was, and it was the Titans. From then on, Levi had chosen to fight, not only for himself, but for humanity.

Levi remembered giving one last look to the field where his friends' remains lingered and soon to rot in the coming days. He made his decision to carry their strengths with him and follow the command of Erwin. What happened on that day made him who he was today.

Since then, Levi lost comrades to the Titans over the years though not in droves after Commander Keith Shadis stepped down and gave the reins of command to the very man Levi chose to follow. He promised never to regret, though the aftermaths were always a bitter pill to swallow if the choice was the wrong one. No one was an oracle and saw the outcomes, but it was better to be many steps ahead. Erwin was, no doubt, also steps forward in his planning to capture the enemy.

It was evident to few that the deaths of the two Titans wasn't about hate, but intentional. The experiments on the dumb-looking humanoids performed by Hange Zoe after their capture, must've scared the shit out of whomever wanted to keep that information confidential. During the Training Corps' regiment selection, Erwin's plot of finding the mystery slayer among the crowd of graduates didn't lead much in results. Still, as long as they knew what kind of foe they're dealing with, preparations were at hand.

Only those among the Survey Corps still surviving before the fall of Wall Maria—which was less than _twenty_ now after five years—were told the hidden motive for the mission. Erwin even asked the Special Operation Squad the question of who they believed the real enemy was. Due to their inability to answer for his squad _didn't_ have one, Levi was the only person among the group to deal with Erwin's actual plan.

 _Who'd have thought there to be_ another _fucking Titan like Eren? Then again, the possibility of the Armored and Colossus may be Titan-shifters makes sense._

Another troublesome thing was plotting a new road from Karanes District to Shinganshina, for they had lost all their trails from Trost due to the plugged up gate from the hole created by the Colossus Titan. Had it not shown up when it did, making it to Shinganshina would've been a cinch. Now, they're back to square one, but hopefully, with Eren's ability, they could get to where they need to and back. There will be deaths on this journey, Levi knew for Erwin's not one to be soft-hearted and would send as many soldiers to their deaths if it's a means to protect humanity. In this case, Eren's the enemy's primary target and humanity's chance of survival.

Standing from his seat on his armchair, Levi walked to the door with his teapot in one hand and a lantern in the other in the hopes of making a new pot (this time not letting it get cold). Opening and closing his door, he found the stone corridor empty with the torches that hung on the walls illuminating the path. Levi proceeded to make it to the staircase as the sounds of his footsteps and the clinking of the teapot's lid softly ringed in the empty hall.

* * *

When Levi got to the ground floor, he made his way to the kitchen so that he could get his fixing. However, the light in the mess hall caught his attention. He didn't think anyone would still be up, other than himself. After all, Levi never slept more than fourteen to twenty-one hours a week. Through the crack of the door, he saw Hange Zoe scribbling away in a journal with a lit lantern to her left. Hearing as she did so, she followed with a small giggle as soon as she sat back for a bit. Levi wasn't a curious person, but after knowing the woman for almost six years, he noticed particular quirks about her when she found something in her research. At that, Levi opened the door to the mess hall, the iron hinges creaking and alerting Hange of someone entering the chamber. He saw her turn in her seat with a surprised face before changing it to a big grin.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Hange asked with the grin gone, but in its place was a small smile.

"That's my line," Levi replied as he stopped at her table and placed his teapot on top of the wooden surface. "What the hell are you still doing up, Shitty-Glasses?"

He glanced down at her opened journal with the chicken-scratch that was her handwriting; it was barely legible. It wasn't the only journal she had with her, but Hange had a few more opened logbooks with the same horrible writing and a few crude drawings of the Titans on the pages. When he took a seat across from her, he found a valuable little book that Hange kept on her person at all times. It had been quite some time since he gazed at the thing. The worn leather cover was dried, cracked in some places, and faded from the exposure of the elements. The edges of the pages inside were stained and chewed by insects, but the contents within remained legible. The small journal belonged to one Ilse Langnar.

Levi recalled the discovery of the small journal in a forest on one of their expeditions four years after the fall of Wall Maria. It was one of few personal items that he and Hange recovered that day. The other was her bloodied jacket with the armband from the 34th Expedition. He remembered some of the contents inside, the first few pages neatly written, but once near the end of her log entries—her final ones—the words became difficult to read until examined a second time. The deceased woman was in command of the left flank of the 2nd Brigade. She had lost her squad and her horse, as well as abandoning her broken vertical maneuvering equipment. Though it never said how she met her end, from what Levi understood, Ilse encountered a Titan that it didn't take much imagination to know how she died.

Ilse Langnar's death was a grim reminder of what could happen to all of them. Dying together, dying alone, any form of one's existence then found sometime later, and in the dead woman's case, it was a year after her death. A fool would say they didn't fear death, and it was the cause of recklessness that leads to the indirect end of others. Dying comes with the territory.

"Oh, well, I'm just finishing up my findings from my little experiment with Eren earlier before the rain started."

"Which one? You've done a lot of crazy shit to that kid today, Four-Eyes."

"The one about his partial transformation, remember?"

He remembered. Then there was _that_ little incident from three weeks earlier.

* * *

It was a fine day at the beginning of the month. The spring breeze still lingered while the summer heat was at its infancy as it warmed the outside in a higher temperature than its predecessor, perfect for dumping someone in the dried-up well a few ways from the castle.

"I've thought of a way to stop you just short of killing you," Levi said to Eren in the planning room after drawing a simple outline of a Titan on the chalkboard.

"What?" Eren looked nervous and unsure at the time. It was perfectly understandable, but the kid should know just how important he was for this upcoming expedition.

Levi then proceeded with the same disinterest in his voice like he was talking about the weather. "I said before that the only way to stop you in your Titan form is to kill you, but this would just leave you badly wounded." Levi then had faced the board as he continued his diagram of what he intended to do to Eren. "That said, it would rely on several different skills. In short, we would have to cut out the meat of your Titan neck with you inside of it. Then we would cut off your hands and feet."

He set the chalk back on the wooden holder and faced Eren once again. "They'd grow back anyway, like a lopped-off lizard's tail, right? Disgusting."

"Wait, sir," Eren stuttered but continued. "I don't know how or why my body parts grow back, but isn't there another way?"

"Are you telling me you don't want to take any risks or make any sacrifices?"

Levi saw the apprehensive look on Eren's face, nervous sweat forming on his brow and a single drop running down his face, at the idea of having his limbs severed; who wouldn't? However, Levi, in some form or fashion, understood the boy's fear. Eren didn't know much about his Titan-shifting ability, and the probability of something going wrong was high. Still, it irritated Levi that the boy was being a chicken-shit, especially joining the Survey Corps, where the likelihood of dying is at a high percentage. Did the soon-to-be sacrifices of his fellow soldiers mean anything to the boy at all? Did Eren know what he signed up for? It was he, after all, that dreamed of being a part of the regiment. The damn kid needed to get it together.

"No, sir."

"Then get over it. We have as much a chance of getting killed in the process as you do. So relax."

He watched as Eren looked over his shoulder to find Eld, Gunther, Oluo, and Petra awaiting his answer. Looking a bit unsure, Eren still replied to his comment.

"Yes, sir. Understood."

Hange, who was sitting on a desk to his right, with the sunlight glinting off her oily hair from behind her through the window—which made Levi inwardly cringe at her uncleanliness, again—in pensive thought, she spoke. "Then, I can run an experiment, can't I?"

"It's a big risk," Levi replied. "On the other hand, we can't afford _not_ to poke and prod him."

"I get to devise the plan, yes? Eren, if there's something we don't know, we should find out. It's absolutely worth putting our lives on the line."

From that earlier meeting, Levi found Hange's plan to be quite tame than the last time she subjected other Titans. To prevent Eren from getting out of control, she had suggested lowering the boy inside the old dried-up well next to an empty cottage. Hange's excitement on the commencement of her experiment had Levi annoyed with her energy as they sat on top of their horses after shooting a green flare in the sky, waiting for Eren to transform into his Titan form.

Levi didn't know how long they waited, but it was a good while. All there was in the empty field was trees and no Titan.

"Maybe he didn't see the signal?" Hange said as she looked to hold on to the hope of a successful experiment.

"That's not it," Levi, miffed, had his horse begin to make its way to the well with Hange in tow. "We're not dealing with the most reliable guy,"

After getting off his horse, Levi peered down the well with Hange, finding Eren still in his human form and a look of mortification of his inability to do so. The edges of the fifteen-year-old's mouth was smeared with blood, and his hands continued to drip onto the cuffs of his tan jacket.

"Squad Leader Hange," Eren began as his hazel eyes gazed up at them. "I can't turn into a Titan."

After getting Eren out of the well and bandaging the bites on his hands, there was a relative silence among his squad as they took a drink from the cups in their hands. Reprimanding Eren for the failure, Levi ordered him to do something about it. The whole Eren transforming was a crucial part of the plan to regain Wall Maria, and a setback like that could spell death for many on the field.

At the time, Levi was aggravated at the thought of what-ifs that popped in his head. If a hindrance such as this were to occur when the real mission began, then Eren would be taken to the MPs and the possible dissolution of the Survey Corps by demand of not only the nobles, but by the people themselves. Their failure the day they returned from an expedition on the day Shinganshina and Wall Maria was destroyed, the people had jeered and scorned at them for the defeat. They became a joke. It was going to be the same as back then should Eren was unable to morph.

"Don't worry, Captain," Levi heard Petra say from behind him as she approached to stand on his left. As she did so, he felt her fingers accidentally brush his hand. Seeing that the petite woman hadn't noticed, Levi simply continued drinking his black tea from the stein in his right hand. "I'm sure everything will go accordingly by the time we head out."

"I'm not worried," Levi cooly replied as he let his eyes wander to her face for a moment before going back to look at the field. "Yeager better get it together or else, for his sake."

At his remark, Petra tittered as she curled her right hand to stifle the sound, but proved unsuccessful. The face she made soon after was calm and serene as she, too, watched the landscape of the few trees and an afternoon sky. Levi felt relaxed when around her, something he kept to himself. There was nothing between them, and anyone thinking it was a damn idiot to believe such a thing. They both shared a mutual respect for one another, and that was it. Right?

As Petra was ready to go back to her squadmates, again, Levi felt her fingers gingerly brush his hand. Such a tenderness, though accidental, was foreign to him. The last he ever felt such a thing was from his mother, Kuchel, before she died of her illness. Levi would've soon followed her as he was close to starving to death if not for _that man_. Much like the cases of Furlan and Isabel, Levi had seldom thought of his mother. All he could recall of her was her long black hair, the warmth of her colored eyes, and the gentleness she reserved for him.

His thoughts were interrupted when the exploding sound of thunder came from the direction behind him. The screams from some of the other Scouts alerted Levi as he watched a few of the soldiers, along with the steins and foldable chairs they sat on fly overhead until landing roughly back on the ground. The thick cloud of smoke billowed in the surrounding area where Eren and the rest of his squad had sat. As he reached the smoke, Levi was unable to get near for the intensity of the heat permeated from it like a barrier.

It didn't lasted much until the cloud cleared up. There in the center of where the table once was, was Eren Yeager atop of a partially transformed Titan. It was disgusting-looking. A portion of it was covered in the red muscles, and the left side of it exposed the bones of the ribcage.

 _About damn time_ , was what Levi thought that day.

* * *

That fiasco had led to all the shouting from his squad about whether Eren intentionally transformed that it took Levi a while to have them all settle down. What a fucking headache that was. At the end of it all, Eld, Gunther, Oluo, and Petra had bitten their hands as a form of an apology to the boy. Now and then, when he sees them, their hands were in the different stages of healing.

Levi ignored most of Hange's ramblings, but caught the gist of what she was telling him about her findings. "I know three's the only number of times he's able to transform before getting out of control, but that's not where you're getting at, is it? It has to do with his forms, right?"

"Yes, but here's the thing I find strange!" Hange slammed her hands on the table, causing the lid of his teapot to rattle from the vibrations as she leaned further, so they were eye-to-eye. "From what Rico Brzenska reported of the incident in Trost, and from the eyewitness testimony she collected from those that saw these transformations, Eren's mission leads to the style of his shifts. When he was killing Titans during the battle, he was a fully-developed 15-meter class; when it came to protecting his friends from cannon fire, Eren summoned only the top portion solely for that purpose; plugging up the gate, Eren was back to his 15-meter again, only this time he lost control for a short while, but regain his senses. Then there was that incident at the beginning of my experimentations. Eren was only able to summon just a portion of his Titan body with the right hand holding onto the spoon. It's as if Eren can call upon what is needed most in situations without his knowledge, almost like his _Titan_ self knows what to do, much like a soldier would during combat.

"Then, when I thought about this, it made me wonder about the other two: the Armored and Colossus."

At the mention of the two Titans, it piqued Levi's curiosity, but he will never let her know that. "Aside from them being Titan-shifters themselves?" Levi asked, but cursed at prolonging Hange to continue her rambling. He was never going to get his tea. Then again, he could just leave.

"Yes! It's as if they're all a part of some form of a battle unit, if you think about it. Eren, from the report, he was more suited to attacking, and with Eren being a top fighter in his graduating class, it makes sense that this Titan ability manifested. I still don't know the kinks to how he obtained such power, but let me continue with the other two. When the Armored attacked Wall Maria in Shinganshina, cannons and our maneuvering equipment proved useless.

"On top of that, to be able to simply destroy the wall by ramming it, unlike an ordinary Titan. It's as if it were some sort of provocateur and defense for the other Titans to attack. A shield if you will.

"The Colossus is most likely as an imposing figure. From what Eren told me of his encounter with it on his watch on Wall Rose, when going for the nape, it disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The smoke, like Eren's when he transformed, was heated, but at a much higher temperature, or so he says. I'm going to hypothesize that such an imposing Titan could only transform just once or twice because of the height, but until we get our hands on it, it remains a theory."

"Do you believe that who we're after could be either of the two?"

Hange sat back in her seat, a long sigh escaping her as she then leaned her head against her clasped hands. "I don't know. Maybe. I often wonder if we have enough firepower to take down whoever on this expedition— _if_ it is one of them."

Levi furrowed his brow at Hange's words. They only had a week before setting out to Karanes District, and preparations were almost complete. The special target restraining weapon was safely hidden from view by only the trusted veterans of the Survey Corps, so that it was kept secret from anyone that could be the potential Titan spy. Once they captured the enemy, Levi was confident in his ability to subdue whoever it was.

"I never doubt Erwin. His plans have gotten us further than previous Commanders after the fall. So, even if the firepower's lacking, I'll make sure to take down whoever's inside that Titan."

He knew that a part of this operation relied on his skills to bring down their enemy. Hange lifted her head to gaze at him with her brown eyes behind her glasses. Levi then saw her lips curve into a small smile before sporting the wide grin again.

"So, Levi, do you want to know what else I found out?"

At the question, Levi decided it was time to leave. Standing from his seat, he grabbed his teapot and half-spent lantern from the table and was slowly making his way to the door much to Hange's whining of her disapproval of his sudden leaving. He could still hear her calling him when he was finally back in the corridor.

"Back to getting the tea," Levi muttered as he continued his trek to the kitchen. "Damn Shitty-Glasses and her prolix explanations."

* * *

Back in his room, Levi continued to watch the rainfall from his window as he leaned back in the comfort of his chair with a cup of freshly brewed black tea. Spending time with Hange had him realize just how late it was getting. He guessed it was a little past one or two in the morning, but he would still get plenty of rest, or as much rest as he thought he needed. The soft rain began to pour a little heavier than before after the thunder started to rumble.

_There was only a week left._

Levi took another sip from his cup, and the now downpour brought a new face into his thoughts. Warm brown eyes that emoted a serene look his way and strawberry-blond hair gingerly tucked behind the owner's ear with the delicate hand that accidentally brushed his three weeks back. He could still sense the lingering gentleness from the ghostly graze on his left hand when he thought of that day.

"Fucking hate the rain," Levi grumbled after setting his cup on his desk, watching the cursed downpour outside his window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter before we finally get to the expedition. Thank you all for reading. I truly appreciate your time.  
> Yes, I know; I couldn’t help myself with PetraLevi hints and moment.


	4. Freya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a groceries run, Freya reflects back on her life ten years after the discovery of the Nephilim-infested island. She gets a surprise visit from someone she hadn’t spoken to in the last seven years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in the perspective of a relevant OC. The 57th Expedition will begin in the next chapter. Enjoy!

Freya Kretschmann hated loud noises. It was the reason why she preferred to remain indoors within the placid confinement that was her apartment rather than the noisy place she was at the moment. However, today she had to be out and about for some necessities, and the task at hand was proving difficult when going down her mental shopping list of what she already had back home versus what she needed.

 _Chicken or something vegetarian?_ Freya pondered as she looked at the cuts of fresh meat inside the cooler display case. She never had dilemmas in her food choices before, but seven years can do that. She closed her eyes and huffed when the weight of the basket she held tilted back from the item placed inside. "Put it back," she droned as she looked beside her, finding a pair of dark blue eyes that widened like a pleading pup.

"Please?" the boy begged, widening his eyes more Freya swore they would pop out of their sockets any moment.

"Noah Ragnar Hans."

"Ouch, full name," he flinched, but still he persisted. "Aww, come on, Mom! The cafeteria at Horizon stopped carrying them."

Freya looked down at her basket, finding a box of strawberry-flavored frozen yogurt bars. Then her eyes looked at her son and gave up with a long sigh. The little pout he had on his face grew into a cheeky grin as if he got away with murder.

 _Murdering my authority_ , she internally quipped. "I swear, you're just like your father. Persistent."

Noah couldn't help but chuckle at the remark. The seven-year-old was every bit his father from his dark hair, the dark blue eyes down to his long fingers and toes. The only things Noah inherited from her was her smart-mouth and her stubbornness; and something else.

She watched as the boy gently lifted his thin arms and limped forward with the help of his forearm crutches as he continued down the snack aisle of the grocery store.

"Noah, stay close."

"Ok, Mom!"

Three years after the discovery of Nephilim on an island further east, Freya, duty-bound, fulfilled her Harmony indenture with her Harmony-partner Nikolaj Hans—a childhood friend of hers and one of a handful of captains from the Raiders Unit of the Eden Military—shortly before his second deployment to the foreign land and her last mission on the final wave rebellion in Snowhaven. Unfortunately for her family, she refused her arranged marriage to him, much to the delight of both their mothers (though her mother did very well disguising hers). Freya had her reasons and cared little about the dishonor she brought to the Kretschmann clan. With Noah's first birthday, the discovery of the defective Meta-serum that flowed within her compromised her son's ability to walk—which caused further disgrace to her family.

However, there was still hope for Noah if she had a say so in his choices. Freya heard from her former sister-in-law Angela (her elder brother Fenrir's ex-wife) of a new Broaden-serum that could help restore her son's ability to walk. Now that Noah's been a part of Horizon for two years, it's up to him to decide what was best for him as a semi-emancipated minor.

Freya went to one of the produce stands, selecting brightly colored bell peppers only, for Noah was quite the picky eater. It was a miracle that he even liked the vegetable as children his age refused to touch such a thing like it was poison. Placing the bag that held the vegetables after a couple minutes of selecting, she saw the boy coming back with another box of who knew what. She watched the grin on his face as if already knowing she was going to concede if he made the puppy-eyes again.

As Noah past by a young couple, Freya glared their way when they stared at her son, making his way to her. Disabilities among the population of Eden wasn't rare, but it was, nonetheless, uncommon; and the cause of it from the variety of Broaden-serums was fewer. Freya's three older brothers have their children without any congenital disabilities from their Broaden injections; it was just her. Still, from her younger brother Manolo, it was too early to tell as his Harmony-partner was still pregnant with twins.

Catching her fierce eyes, they walked away, but not at her glare. No, the couple scurried off when they saw what she was wearing. An Arbiter's uniform. The black and gray kevlar armor from top to bottom with her weapon strapped to her utility belt on her hip, but sans helmet that covered her face as she left it in the compartment of her vehicle. It wasn't the first time people stared at her for what she wore since she entered the store. People, too, found Freya and Noah like an odd couple, she believed, due to her stoic face and her son's carefree nature.

 _Either that or maybe because they'll have to be careful of what they do around me. The people aren't so fond of Arbiters,_ Freya presumed as she was picking a better-looking shallot from the pile. _Or any form of law enforcement._

Noah placed the box in her basket, happy that she didn't scold him for putting another item that wasn't on her mental list. When she glanced at the colorful box with the illustration of a happy brown cow holding a bowl of chocolate cereal, Freya looked to the boy in disapproval.

"I thought I told you to stay close to where I can see you, Noah," she scolded him, but the boy's brows knit in irritation.

"No, you said to _stay close_ , which I did," he rebuked. "The cereal section is two aisles away. That's close to where you are. If you didn't want me to walk there, you should be precise with your words, Mom."

"Noah, I'm not going to argue with you. You knew what I meant as we do this all the time. I don't want you to wander off and finding out you got hurt in some fashion. Do it again, and I'll let your father know you're not going on that trip to Verdant Plantation after your summer course ends."

"Yes, I can. I'm an _emancipated_ minor."

"Only when it comes to medical treatments and other little things. Full emancipation's by the time you complete Horizon, and that won't be for another four years. I'm still your primary caretaker; therefore, _I_ make those decisions whether you like it or not."

"That's bullshit!"

"Language," Freya scolded, hating to be the bad guy in her son's eyes. Whenever he went to visit his father, Noah always had the man on a damn pedestal like a statue of the Twelve. _That, and he learns another curse word when he comes home_.

The standoff only lasted a minute as a few of the shoppers kept staring as they walked by, able to sense the bit of tension between mother and son, but in the end, Noah slumped his shoulders in defeat and mumbled an apology.

"Now, I'm going to overlook this incident, but don't you start using that smart-mouth on me. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am," Noah grumbled, his eyes shifting from the floor to her and back again.

"Good. Now, come on. Let's finish this shopping so we can go home."

"Early morning?"

"Four o'clock."

"But you just got back from work an hour ago, Mom." Noah shook his head in disbelief of her work schedule. Then he added, "Thank Horizon for not adding that to their career list. I would never want to be an Arbiter. I'll stay on my trek, thank you."

"Glad to hear it."

"So, why _did_ you quit the Rangers Unit? I thought you couldn't change careers once assigned by Horizon."

"Only under certain circumstances you can quit."

"And yours was?"

"You." Freya gently tousled his dark hair, a small smile gracing her lips. _It's not a complete lie_ ; she thought as they kept walking aisle to aisle for their groceries. She preferred to maintain the real reason of her resignation from the military to herself. Her son was only an infant during that dark time.

* * *

Tonight's supper of the peppers and shallots along with shrimp (Noah's idea), and rice wafted throughout her small open layout apartment on the eighteenth floor of the mega-complex. The aroma of said meal was strong against the typical subtle scent of a lit vanilla and cinnamon candle, or a relaxing peppermint. The apartment was clean, the way she preferred it, with nothing but simple contemporary-styled furniture of a couch, coffee table, a stand where the holo-projector rested on with small pots of succulents decorating it; floral paintings done by her younger sister Diana—which Freya purchased anonymously at an art fair after the fallout with her family—hung on the walls; a bookcase-full of books she's read multiple times, and kept a worn-out book at the very top shelf far from reach. The absence of family pictures weren't present like any ordinary person would display in their home, but Freya had all those in her room.

The door beside the family room had led to the decent-sized covered balcony where, on spring and summer days to early fall, she and Noah enjoyed their meals as they gazed out at the scene of the clustered cityscape of North Avalon. However, when they left the grocery store, the cloudy sky was ushering for rain as the earthy smell permeated the air, and the gusts were non-too-pleasant as they were strong, and the day's humidity of North Avalon might as well have been a sauna; so, eating outside was out of the question.

Turning the stove off, Freya grabbed two plates from the top cabinet to her right above the stove and served herself and her son a portion as she placed them on the breakfast nook that was attached to the counter by the sink. Walking to the steel staircase adjacent to the kitchen, Freya called to Noah from his perch in the small loft that was his room and study.

"Supper time, kiddo."

"I'll be down in a minute," Noah called back as she heard the clinks and clanks from his tools. "I have to put this up first."

"Alright, but don't forget to wash up."

"I won't."

Mealtime was silent for the first few minutes per usual. After that little incident at the grocery store, Noah had apologized—sincerely this time, not begrudgingly—about his attitude. Honestly, Freya had expected him to talk back sooner or later, just not while he was in his single digits. Still, it reminded her of Nikolaj's relationship with his mother; but unlike her Harmony-partner's mother, Freya wasn't a conniving bitch. Though she disliked the woman, Freya knew never to insult her son's grandmother in front of him. She instead took everything in stride as it wasn't worth her time.

It was at the grandest annual party among the wealthy, the Rose Gala, where Freya officially met Councilor Sieglinde Hans, Nikolaj's mother. She was eleven during the encounter with said Councilor. Freya was quiet—not shy as most people thought—as she had listened to the woman blab on and on about unimportant things like expectations of marrying into the Hans clan, one of three influential Houses in East Eden; and Freya, much like her Noah, had a smart-mouth. Replies to questions she had been asked sounded on the verge of sarcasm that Councilor Hans grew a dislike for Freya, as she had observed from the woman's body language. Then the good Councilor had the audacity of lecturing Freya's mother, Lady Amelia Kretschmann, about not instilling Freya the teachings, grace, and social etiquette expected of a highborn lady from another powerful House.

Since that day, Freya simply ignored the woman during social functions from then on, much to the other's chagrin. Nikolaj, on the other hand, hooted when she told him about the encounter when he asked. It wasn't her fault that she told Councilor Hans the truth about her coming-to-be as the Lady of House Hans. The woman was fortunate that Harmony's algorithm paired her with Lord Konrad Hans, especially coming from a low branch clan like the Zimmermans. She wasn't insulting Sieglinde Hans, per se, but Freya congratulated her of making it to the upper echelon of the nobility—which, if she thought about it, _did_ sounded on the verge of sarcasm.

Then, soon after the birth of Noah, Sieglinde Hans meddled into Freya and Nikolaj's friendship that lasted for almost twenty years. Now, they don't speak like they used to. The topic was only about Noah's medications, updates of what he likes to eat, what his favorite genre of book was for that month as it always changes, and upcoming events from his Horizon trek—which was in the engineering department.

Sometimes, Freya's thoughts took her back ten years ago when she was seventeen, and the last moment she spent with her captain, Nero North. She remembered his green eyes lingering at her face like an artist would to sketch a portrait for keepsake. Then soon after, she learned about the deployment to that foreign Nephilim-infested land, and he died along with his squad. Eden's super soldiers weren't strong enough to take down those creatures. When she heard about her captain's death, Freya, for once, broke down, away from prying eyes, in the relative safety of her room back home. She regretted never telling Nero North that she had felt something for him, but now he'll never know.

A year-and-a-half after the death of the young lord, House North suffered more loss with the deaths of Elwyn North (the second eldest son) and Lady Aliye North (Nero's mother and the matriarch of the household) on their way to the city of Cibola in the southwest of North Eden from a crash. The tragedies had led to Snowhaven, once again, uprising against Arcadia and the neighboring villages and towns right up to the southern and western borders of Eden. Snowhaven may be a small town in the northwest of North Eden, but the people remain unbroken after their hostile take-overs over the years. It wasn't the people that started these wars, but small militias of mercenaries of rogue foot soldiers that injected themselves with stolen Meta-serum. Freya had been sent to the front lines of the battle with several infantries of Rangers on that last wave.

When the war was over after three months, Freya then understood why Nero always acted silly. It was so that those memories never resurfaced again. She, too, now has memories of blood and bodies of innocent civilians, especially the children, ingrained forever in her mind. With the mercenaries at last neutralized and not a single escaping as they did before, Freya couldn't help the gloom over the loss of almost two thousand civilian lives from the short war, nor of the soldiers in the unit she pertained. Still, Snowhaven and the entirety of North Eden settled back in the calm and peace as it should've been years ago. That was the time when she fulfilled her Harmony indenture with Nikolaj; she was almost twenty by then.

Taking her mind off the memories of Snowhaven and Nero North, Freya's curiosity was then to her son and what he was working on in his small loft. "So, what're you working on up there so diligently the last few days?" She asked as she took a bite of a sautéed shrimp, enjoying the citrus flavor that soon followed.

"Project," Noah answered as he took a quick sip of water from his glass cup.

"What kind?"

"Transportation. Master Rory wanted us to try and build a small scale model of a hovering mode of transportation. I picked the railway system."

"Hovering? How's that working for you?"

"I'm trying to figure out how I'll be able to get an almost one-hundred thousand pound train—empty cars, by the way—lifted off the ground. I'm thinking magnets, but the ones that Auntie An bought me are weak."

"So, you need stronger magnets then?"

"Yup!"

"Did you also figured out how you're going to keep them from sticking to the metal body? What about the rails?"

"Well, I wanted to use the natural anti-gravitational flotation system of the magnets to keep it hovered, but…?"

"But it's going to fly off the rail with the repel?"

Noah nodded his head in answer to her question, then took a bite of white rice with his face in that all-too-familiar pensive habit like his father: eyes down with his mouth twitched to the left and his fingers rhythmically tapping on the table.

"Do you think that maybe placing the magnets in a certain distance can help?"

At her question, she saw Noah's eyes widened with interest, followed by a grin. "Mom, you clever, clever witch."

"Hey, it's my job to help out whenever I can; though I'm not adept to engineering." Freya then saw him ready to bolt when he placed an arm on one of his crutches. "Finish eating before you get back to work. If your Auntie An's magnets aren't functioning, I'll buy you some after my shift."

"Thanks, Mommy."

"Alright, now you're trying to butter me up when you call me 'Mommy.'"

As they continued their supper in comfortable silence, the doorbell disrupted their meal as it rang throughout the apartment with its electric melody. Freya glanced at the front door, the panel with the video showing who was waiting behind in the hall of the mega-complex. The gentle smile out of courtesy plastered on the delicate heart-shaped face with fine frown lines on light olive skin, warm brown eyes that held no warmth behind them, and lightly graying dark brown hair in a neat updo that was typical to the generation of the woman with a dark blue hat that tilted to the right.

The bell rang again, and Freya got off from the stool she sat on and made her way to the door. Unlocking the lock and removing the small chain that helped latch it for security measures, Freya opened the door to come face-to-face with the smiling petite woman that was Lady Amelia Kretschmann, her mother.

"Mother?" Freya curiously asked, but kept her face stony. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home eating dinner with Father and Diana?"

Her mother let herself inside the small apartment, walking in her refined gait that oozed regality as she ignored the questions. Freya watched her near Noah as she then lovingly talked to him in the language only those in the coastal north of West Eden spoke in the port city of Lemuria. Freya, too, knew the language as well as the rest of her five siblings. Her son, also, talked a bit, but understood some things here and there as long as it wasn't complicated.

" _My little bear, how are you doing?"_ Her mother asked Noah as she held his face before kissing his cheeks then his forehead.

" _I'm good, Grandma,"_ Noah replied in the Lemurian language, then continued in High Edenite; "I'm working on a project for Master Rory's summer class. I'm trying to make a model-scale train hover."

"Really now? That sounds fantastic. Be sure to show me when you've completed it, yes?"

Noah nodded in reply. Freya watched the interaction from her position at the opened door. Closing it, she approached her mother, unsure why she was here of all places and not back at Highgarden Manor in South Avalon, where the wealthy resided. Lady Amelia Kretschmann then turned to her, that same cold yet courteous smile on her lips.

"Freya, darling, how have you been?"

"I've been well, Mother, but I'm wondering as to what do I owe the pleasure of being graced by your presence this evening?" Freya trod with caution.

It was strange for one to feel a sense of unease around a parent, especially a mother of all people. However, this was normalcy in the Kretschmann clan. While the head was her father, who was just as intimidating as he was dangerous, her mother was every bit as fierce as the patriarch of the clan. Father relied on strength, Mother on cleverness, yet they were both loved and feared by kin and its subsidiaries. Duty-bound, cold, unyielding, forthright, and non-sycophantic, it mattered not what measures her family took to get ahead as long as a result was without severe consequence; that was what made a Kretschmann.

Her upbringing was not what she wanted for Noah. Though she was slowly recovering her mental health from Snowhaven, Freya at least, in her way, showed genuine care and unconditional love to her son. Sometimes she wondered whether Mother was like her, or was her affections all insincere.

"I came here to talk with my little sparrow, what else?" Mother said as if it were obvious. Then she looked at the half-eaten supper on the counter. "Ah, I seem to have disrupted your meal. My apologies."

"It's alright. Noah was ready to flee the table earlier about an idea for his project."

"Huh?" Noah uttered.

Freya gestured to him with her eyes at the stairs. Taking the hint, Noah placed the forearm crutches back on and walked to the staircase where his electric lift was to the rail on his left. Watching as the seat took her son to the loft, Freya turned to her mother.

" _Now,"_ Freya began in Lemurian, _"what brings you here, Mother? I know it's not a courtesy call to check up on Noah or me. Spill it."_

" _Is it so shocking that I came to see how you were doing? Honestly, Freya, you wound me."_

" _I sincerely doubt that."_

Mother sighed, annoyed as she placed a right hand on her hip, letting the gold and diamond bangles dangle on her wrist and exposing the diamond rings on her fingers purposefully on display. Her elegant deep royal blue boat neck dress with matching heels screamed wealth. It wasn't her mother's everyday wear.

 _She must've come from some formal function, but not too formal_ , Freya deduced as she, also, once dressed in elegant attire as her mother. Compared to her, Freya simply wore the trousers of her uniform and a black tank top.

" _I came here on behalf of your father,"_ Mother said.

" _Father?"_

" _Yes, darling, your father. Honestly, I don't know what that man would've done without me if I hadn't agreed to do this little favor. I understand he's still awful sore of your falling out, but this is a matter that he should've taken care of as he's the Premier."_

" _What does he want?"_

" _He's ordering you to join the upcoming operation to that horrid little island."_

At the mention of the island, Freya grew curious. She had never set foot in that place, but Nikolaj gave anecdotes of his time there. The expeditions over the last ten years were only about mapping whatever was possible of the terrain and capturing live specimens of the Nephilim.

At first, Eden only set their sights to capture one or two of the creatures for testing, but when they dissected the back of the neck, it died and decomposed at an alarming rate. They changed the very purpose of their mission.

Ten years ago, the expedition was solely on rescuing the people. However, due to the airships being too large to land within the Walls—after discovering where the population resided soon after sending a visual orbiter to spy at the island—and far too dangerous outside—which they came to find that Nephilim roamed close to the three giant concentric rings that was the border—the mission ended up as a failure.

Five years after the discovery, after the third deployment was concluded, the outer wall was destroyed. It wasn't said how it came to be for that day was an important late spring holiday in Eden. Only the higher-ups knew what occurred that day.

" _I'm no longer in service to the military, remember? I quit."_

" _On the contrary, darling, you're still a Ranger. You're on reserves—which is rare. Given your circumstance seven years ago, your father had Chancellor Bammes accept your temporary resignation on the grounds that when Noah is of Academic age, should duty call, to consider your resignation annulled. Still a pretty little bird in a pretty little cage among dangerous cats."_

Mother had always said those words to her. Freya knew the meaning behind the words and they always had her feel unease, especially when it involved Nero North back then. Her mother had quite the perception when she figured her feelings for her captain before Freya herself knew of them. They were a warning to her.

"But why need me?" Freya went back to High Edenite.

"Because, Freya, this operation is the biggest yet. It's not only soldiers that are going, but any who speak Old Edenite."

"So, does that include you, too, Mother?"

"Yes, my little sparrow. After all, I'm a doctor. Seeing the extensive damage that's caused by these creatures and how primitive the medical knowledge might be over there, I'll be on the support team with Rose and Angela."

 _Angela and Rose?_ Freya thought of the mother-daughter duo that was her former sister-in-law and her eldest niece. Then her focus was on her son and his care. "But, Noah—"

"All taken care of. Your Aunt Fenja will watch over Noah; I made sure of that. To think, leaving a boy like Noah in the care of an eighty-year-old nanny from the Zimmermann clan? Over my dead body, I say. It's difficult to tell who will be watching whom."

"I work."

"I left Supreme Judge Wallace your reason for not going in. As I said, it's taken care of."

"And if I say no?"

Her mother sighed, exasperated by the adamancy Freya displayed. She knew her mother disliked her attitude. "Freya, darling, you have no choice in the matter. So stiff an upper lip and just enjoy getting out of Eden, though there's nothing enjoyable about this expedition."

Letting the words sink in, Freya tsked, annoyed that her mother was right. When she joined the Arbiters Unit, she found it odd that they didn't turn her away when finding out her leaving the military for good without Horizon finding out. After all, Horizon was the only one that allowed any career change, not the person themselves; that's _if_ they let you. However, her mother confirmed that it was Chancellor Bammes' doing that let her enter the unit in the first place. Sometimes, one should feel envious of the eighty percent of the population for they are freer. Freya never understood why that part of the populace chose the confinement of a different set of rules than the already lenient ones given to them.

"When does it take place?"

"Next week. It'll give us time to get supplies ready, strategies in place, and for you elite soldiers, introduce you to a more potent serum than Meta. We call it Verstarken."

"Verstarken?"

"You have the rest of the week to train under it. Get ready, Freya, darling, because this serum will take you beyond the limitations of what you and the other soldiers are capable."

**Author's Note:**

> You made it to the end. Again, thank you so much for reading all the way. I promise the next chapter is a Canon character. The prologue is a set up to get to know some Original Characters, and bits about how their society functions. The setting is one of many in this world; I'm just letting you know that. Let me know what you think about the story. 
> 
> Thank you!


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